Local Prensa Libre reported citing Sergio Cabanas, the secretary general of Guatemala's CONRED disaster agency, that the natural calamity affected in total over 1.7 million people in the country, which has a population of about 17 million.

According to specialists from Guatemala’s National Institute for Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology, the volcano, which is located just 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the southwest of the country’s capital, Guatemala City, is churning up ashes to the height of 10 kilometers above the sea level.

Guatemala's civil aviation authority announced in its Twitter account earlier that the eruption forced the authorities to shut down the La Aurora international airport in the capital.